Old Children's Book Poll

[rachelmanija]

Here are some old children's books I have acquired. Please vote for which I should read next (or which I should avoid.) If you've read any of them, what did you think?

Poll #26528 Old Children's Book Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 129

View Respondents

Which books should I read next?

View Answers

Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. A girl is sent to rural Vermont and experiences country life.
32 (24.8%)

Building Blocks, by Cynthia Voigt. A boy time-travels and meets his father as a boy.
22 (17.1%)

Juniper, by Monica Furlong. A princess studies with her wise-woman aunt.
50 (38.8%)

Mossflower, by Brian Jacques. Martin the Warrior vs en evil cat queen.
24 (18.6%)

Castaways in Lilliput, by Henry Winterfield. Three shipwrecked kids land in Lilliput.
17 (13.2%)

Midsummer, by Katherine Adams. Two New York kids are sent to Sweden & experience Swedish life.
20 (15.5%)

Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder. Kids live alone on an island.
23 (17.8%)

Mariel of Redwall, by Brian Jacques. Finally a heroine.
25 (19.4%)

The Fairy Caravan, by Beatrix Potter. A miniature animal traveling circus.
19 (14.7%)

A Room Made of Windows, by Eleanor Cameron. Teenage Julia wants to be a writer.
18 (14.0%)

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, by Judith Kerr. Anna and her family are refugees in multiple countries.
30 (23.3%)

Hyddenworld, by William Horwood. Two kids find a civilization of tiny people and magic.
23 (17.8%)

Assignment in Alaska (Kathy Martin), by Josephine James. A stewardess has an Alaska adventure.
9 (7.0%)

Talargain, by Joyce Gard. Northumberland selkie fantasy.
45 (34.9%)

Comments

[philomytha]

Mossflower was always my favourite of the Redwall books, and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is good - I remember doing a double take when I realised that was the same Judith Kerr of The Tiger Who Came to Tea aka my son’s favourite book aged two. But right now it’s the tiny civilisation that catches my eye out of the list, I love tiny people stories.

[rachelmanija]

I love tiny people stories so much that I have an entire tag for them.

https://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/tag/genre:+tiny+people

[azdak]

I read to kindergarten kids and The Tiger Who Came To Tea is a perennial favourite. They're always disappointed that the tiger never came back and ask why he didn't. And then I stumbled across Michael Rosen's theory that the story reflects Kerr's experiences of becoming a refugee from Nazi Germany (https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25027090) and EVERYTHING fell into place. So that's why the tiger can drink all the water in the tap! That's why Sophie goes to the restaurant in her nightie! It never made any sense to me before (the tiger doesn't eat her clothes! She could have got changed!) but as an image that captures the sense of being out-of-place and somehow wrong, even when you're somewhere where there's food to eat, it works brilliantly. So I read it to the kids with that in mind and it was a totally different experience. They weren't scared (I'm a responsible reader!) but they absolutely saw that the tiger was a threat (especially when he's sitting at the table saying he's hungry and Sophie and her mum have to be polite to him), and the ending was absolutely on point for them - instead of asking why he never came back, they asked if it was true that he never came back. It's a good thing the pictures show Sophie cuddling the tiger, because the text on its own would have been very frightening.